Global MICE Cities

Sendai

Sendai is at the heart of the Tohoku region’s largest business zone, with a focus on agriculture, forestry, fishing and commerce. A host of research institutes affiliated with Tohoku University collaborate with the private sector and local government on a variety of projects. Sendai has been a key center for promoting recovery following the Great East Japan Earthquake.

The largest business center in the Tohoku region, Sendai has developed with a focus on agriculture, forestry, fishing, commerce and medicine. It lies at the heart of one of Japan’s leading rice-growing areas, with a thriving agricultural sector producing vegetables and fruit. The region is also known for livestock farming, which produces highest ranked Sendai beef and other delicacies. Its proximity to the Sanriku coast, one of the best fishing grounds in the world, drives a flourishing fishing industry that harvests a variety of seafood. Inland areas have clusters of secondary industries related to agriculture, forestry and fisheries, including food and seafood processing as well as electrical machinery manufacturing. Coastal areas are home to companies engaged in sectors including oil, coal, steel and pulp. Sendai is the commercial hub of the region, with an international commercial port and airport attracting container vessels and regular flights. Most imports and exports from other ports and airports in Miyagi pass through Sendai. Sendai is also home to Tohoku University, one of leading centers of learning and research in Japan. The university boasts an array of regional educational and research institutes in a variety of fields, including the Clinical Research, Education and Innovation Center, the Institute for Materials Research, the Center for Integrated Nanotechnology Support, and the International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science. Tohoku University is the focal point of vibrant medical R&D activity. It devotes significant effort to the medical field, for example by collaborating with the prefectural and municipal governments as well as the business community in the aim of making the region a center for medical device development.

Recent Trends in Regional Industry andResearch in Sendai

Medicine: Medical Equipment

Tohoku University, Miyagi Prefectural Government, Sendai City, and the Tohoku Economic Federation are taking the lead in initiatives aimed at making the region a center for the production of medical equipment. Tohoku University is playing a core role in the project and has established Japan’s first and only Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering. Using its wealth of research seeds in the medical equipment sector, it is building strong ties with industry, other academic institutions, government and finance, with a view to making the region a center for development and production of medical equipment. At the same time, the university is collaborating with the business and finance communities to attract domestic and international companies to the region in the aim of creating employment and a medical equipment industry cluster.

Manufacturing

In recent years prominent Japanese manufacturers including Toyota and Tokyo Electron have set up factories and other facilities. Sendai has implemented a range of initiatives to promote ties between industry and academia, including efforts to strengthen the manufacturing SMEs that support the regional economy, enhance research techniques and development capabilities with a view to creating new industries, and conduct trials that utilize the intellectual resources of universities. Another joint industry-academia initiative aims to create a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) cluster. It has established a MEMS Park consortium and is working to develop such a cluster in Sendai in collaboration with partners including Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft of Germany.

Disaster Prevention and Disaster Risk Reduction

As part of recovery efforts following the Great East Japan Earthquake, Sendai is focusing on the fields of disaster prevention and disaster risk reduction. Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science is leading various research and development projects related to disasters and their prevention. R&D initiatives aim to shape practical disaster science, and projects are under way in a wide range of fields including disaster risk, regional and urban revitalization, disaster science, disaster medicine, and information management. In 2015, Sendai hosted the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, adopting the Sendai Framework, a global framework for disaster risk reduction. In order to take the lead in this Framework and share the findings of various projects, World Bosai Forum/International Disaster Risk Conference began in 2017 to be held in Sendai every two years.